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Alan Titchmarsh undertakes an epic journey across the length and breadth of the country in a new ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ programme that explores the diversity of wildlife in The Nature Of Britain.

The eight part series, which can be seen from Wednesday, 10 October, 2007 on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ One, is a comprehensive portrait of Britain's plants, animals and the places where we live.

Across the country, we're being encouraged to get closer to nature and in Norfolk, you're invited to get up close and personal with the county's trees as part of a unique survey.

Tree mapping

If you know about a tree in Norfolk that two adults can't join hands around the trunk and hug, the Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) wants to know about it.

The NWT, working with ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Norfolk's Morning Show, are trying to track down and map the county's most significant trees.

The survey, part of a heritage lottery funded project, is the first in Norfolk Wildlife Trust's Natural Connections project which will run for the next three years.

The information will add to our knowledge of the county's trees and the wildlife that depends on them.

"In every survey, the data is genuinely valuable in supporting conservation," said David North of the NWT.

"In this case it will support the Norfolk and Suffolk County Council heritage tree survey, and will be fed to the Woodland Trust as supporting information for national tree surveys.

The NWT tree survey is designed for people who love getting closer to nature, who enjoy programmes like the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's Nature Of Britain, Breathing Places or Autumnwatch and who want to get more actively involved with local wildlife.

Whether your favourite tree is an oak, ash or, willow, beech, lime or sweet chestnut, Norfolk Wildlife Trust want to know about it.

Trees of legend

Do you know a tree with a local story or legend about it?ÌýPerhaps your village or town has a particularly large or ancient tree.

The project is a great opportunity to get outside on your own, or with friends and family and really have a good look at Norfolk's trees, to appreciate them and help the NWT literally get them on the map.

"It's all about raising the awareness and the importance of trees in the Norfolk landscape," said David North.

"We all benefit from trees - be it visually, sheltering in their shade, collecting conkers - we walk pass them every day without really looking at them, so it's about opening our eyes to appreciate what's on our doorstep," he added.

Taking part in NWT survey

To take part post your tree stories to Notable Trees, Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Bewick House, 22 Thorpe Road, Norwich NR1 1RY.

To send in a record of an especially large tree you can complete the survey online on the Norfolk Wildlife Trust website, or you can complete a post-card survey form.

Survey postcards are available from ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Norfolk (01603 613631), the Norfolk Wildlife Trust (01603 625540) or you can download one here. The survey runs until Friday, 30 November, 2007.

In addition to the survey, the project is also encouraging people to submit their photos of Norfolk's wildlife and wild places for a wildlife photo gallery on the NWT's website.

Why not take a photo of your special tree? A selection of these photos may be displayed on the Norfolk Wildlife Trust and ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Norfolk websites.

Loving our trees

When it comes to trees, David is quite the romantic and admits that stepping into a wood is a 'magical experience' as the world is transformed into a hundred different kinds of green.

This is what he has to say about our best loved trees:

Ash

It has the distinctive lobed leaves and black buds but, believe it or not, the ash is related to the olive tree. Ash is another of our ancient wildwood descendants.

It has very springy timber and was used by carpenters, cart wrights and wheelwrights. Ploughs, axles and oars for boats were made out of ash as they needed to be flexible under pressure.

In Norfolk, herring curers used ash to preserve the fish. Woods around Ashwellthorpe in Norfolk were grown up to supply the broom handle makers at the brush factory in Wymondham until the 1970s.

Beech

One of our most beautiful trees, in the autumn its coppery golden yellow leaves transform our woods. They cast heavy shade and very few things grow underneath.

Native beech trees grow in a line from the Severn to the Wash so Norfolk is the northern limit of the wild tree, although it's widely planted now. The beech has always been used for firewood and it makes very good charcoal which was used as an ingredient in gunpowder.

Lime

The great avenues of lime trees that were planted in times past are now remembered in may of our street names. 6000 years ago the lime was thought to be the most common tree in the wildwood – not the oak tree.

The three types of lime tree to look for in Norfolk are the small-leaved lime often found in ancient woods, the large-leaved lime which is quite scarce and the common lime which is the one most often planted in avenues.

What about shipbuilding? England would have been invaded by the French if we hadn't had our fleets of oak built ships. Admiral Lord Nelson's ship, HMS Victory was made out of oak - 6000 trees were used to make it and 90% of them were oaks.

Oak woodlands were valuable in medieval times as they were rented out to graze pigs who feasted on the acorns. Foxley Wood reserve in Norfolk is one of those woods that used to be grazed by pigs and is the largest remaining ancient woodland in the county.

Sweet Chestnut

They have spiralling knarled bark which you can often see woody faces in. Although they aren't native, coming originally from the Mediterranean, they are now well established.

The National Trust's Blickling and Felbrigg parks have fine specimens of sweet chestnut trees and they are often common in Norfolk churchyards with the trunks of ancient chestnuts reaching an impressive size.

Willow

Willow will grow anywhere and there are more than 10 different species of willow in Norfolk. Traditionally it was used for basket weaving and eel fishermen made their traps out of willow.

The first ever cricket bat willow was discovered in Norfolk in the 1700s before it went on to be more widely planted in Suffolk and Essex. Now willow is planted as a bio-fuel crop as it is so fast growing.